Some Things You're Better Off Not Knowing

Looks like we're going into Christmas without a solution to the fiscal cliff debacle. Now there's a surprise! Who would have thought that the Democrats and Republicans would have reached an impasse?

It aggravates me to no end because I remember when they used to get things done up there. When I was a kid, Sam Rayburn of Texas was the Speaker of the House. Somehow or another, he, Lyndon Johnson, Barry Goldwater, and others just seemed to figure out a way to get it done. We didn't necessarily get all the details, we just knew they came out of the back room with a deal. It was that way more recently, too. When Medicare passed, it was very controversial. But somehow, some way, they worked through it and got it passed. And then, sometime later, came gridlock. Nobody gives an inch and nothing gets done. And do you know when it happened? Well, right about the time CNN came along. Right about the time we decided we needed to know everything that happened in real time. You know, the "public's right to know" and all that.

Well, at the risk of sounding apathetic, I don't need to know everything! I don't need to know every single detail of how something passed or didn't pass. Or even who said what, when. I just need to know that, at the end of the day, the situation was resolved. Same thing with the "War on Terror", Afghanistan, Syria, and Lybia. Just answer one question..."Are we winning?" If the answer is yes, then keep on doing what you're doing. If the answer is no, then make an adjustment. Pretty simple in my opinion.

About 25 years ago, an old boss of mine used to say "Don't tell me about the labor pains, just show me the baby." Man, I wish Congress and the President could take that one to heart! Oh, and there's one more thing....if you insist on telling me about the labor pains and never show me the baby, I'll vote for your opponent in the next election. The same boss who used the baby analogy also used to say "we're not measuring activity, we're measuring results." In other words, we don't care how busy you are - just whether or not you're getting the job done. Man, I miss that guy more than I thought!

So here's the bottom line, Washington...we're looking for results. Not sound bites, not witty sayings, not blaming the other party, not who can get the most face time on CNN. Just results. Is that so unreasonable?

Till next time.....